Maintenance vs. missionGeorge Weigel
Just when the Long Lent of 2002 was coming to a boil in March of that year, Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, prefect of the Vatican's Congregation for the Clergy, took things from "boil" to "nuclear meltdown" ...
Praying with childrenJohn Garvey
Next month, Pope Francis will host a synod of bishops on the theme of "Young people, faith and vocational discernment." This may seem uncomfortable, even incongruous, given the crisis the church faces ...
The 200th anniversary of Father Matignon's deathThomas Lester
Sept. 19, 2018 will mark the 200th anniversary of the death of Father Francis Anthony Matignon who, along with Cardinal Jean-Louis Lefebvre de Cheverus, laid the foundations of the Archdiocese of Boston ...
Winners and losersDick Flavin
Of all sad words of tongue or pen, The saddest are these: "It might have been!" John Greenleaf Whitter The mood inside Worcester City Hall on Aug. 17, was euphoric; there were high fives and hearty ...
Scandal and truthRussell Shaw
The speaker was a highly sophisticated layman, possessor of a doctorate and professor of theology at a major Catholic university. We had been discussing the metastasizing scandals plaguing the Church--scandals ...
Sweden's Catholic past and futureGreg Erlandson
Standing in a field north of Stockholm, I was looking at a Viking rune, an arrow-shaped stone as tall as a person. It was etched with words in Old Norse that wound like a ribbon over the face of the stone. ...
Saving Synod-2018 from itselfGeorge Weigel
Anyone looking for a remedy for insomnia might try working through the Instrumentum Laboris, or "working document," for the XV Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, to be held in Rome next ...
Is it Mookie and J.D. or J.D. and MookieDick Flavin
Mookie and J.D.? J.D. and Mookie? Which will it be? Of the Red Sox two superstars, who will end up with top billing? The votes aren't in yet, and the issue remains in doubt. Hopefully it will remain ...
Say it ain't soDwight G. Duncan
There have been recent calls for Pope Francis (and Cardinal Seán, for that matter) to resign for supposedly knowing about ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick's past sexual abuse of young males and not doing ...
Full-immersion CatholicismGeorge Weigel
As this Catholic annus horibilis continues to unfold, perhaps some good news is in order; first, a little background. In late 1991, Italy's Rocco Buttiglione and America's Michael Novak ...
